What local platforms for renting an apartment in Italy are there?

Booking.com lists apartments
Reviews are legit as they can only be submitted by people who have actually stayed at the property

The choices are all pretty much the same whether the language is Italian or English, and many apartments will be listed on more than one. Look at booking.com, airbnb.com, vrbo.com, casa.it, idealista.it The term in Italian is 'affito breve'.

You had mentioned Plum Guide in a previous post but reported it as discontinued? It's still active:

https://www.plumguide.com/search?location=Florence--Metropolitan-City-of-Florence--Italy&placeId=ChIJrdbSgKZWKhMRAyrH7xd51ZM

I don't know of any platform where a host can pay to have guest reviews removed. As I know you have an issue with airbnb, best just to use a different booking service.

hey hey Denny
are planning to stay one month in each city or a total of one month stay in the three, moving every week to a new place? as others have posted some sites to check out, we've used booking.com many times since reviews are from people who have stayed in their properties. when finding one we have emailed or called direct if better rates if booking direct. what town in the veneto are you planning to stay? some have mentioned veniceredhouse.com

remember check-in times 3-4pm and check-out 10-11am.
you will get pros & cons of all places but don't go overboard on stressing out and going nuts. i've also found a few private apartments not listed on sites and loved the one we stayed at in venice
when is this trip, how many people, budget in euros, amenities needed?
is this another trip you're planning since you other posts says you just got back? hope you find something good luck
aloha

Hi Princess,
It would be one month in just one place. I know there must be local agencies, as sites like booking.com and vrbo.com are geared to a few-days visitors. It's a lot of work trying to find a suitable place. If it were only a few days, I'd stay at a hotel.

For Florence, I've been searching https://www.apartmentsflorence.it/. They have monthly rental options. The issue is that there aren't a lot of reviews.

I have never used this service but Rome Expats group shared it with me a few years ago when we were considering a long-term visit https://cribmed.com/

VRBO usually offers nice discounts for extended stays - you can see them if you select 'discounts' from the menu.

https://www.italyperfect.com/

We aways contact the manager/host for properties we like on VRBO/Airbnb and ask for a better rate on extended stays. Also, most manager/host have more than one property to offer which you might not see on the web.

So, a word of advice. Back in 2022 when we went to Puglia, pretty much every host in every city we stayed in contacted us via WhatsApp , whether we reserved it through booking .com or Airbnb and in most cases, which is the case for most of Italy, we ended up paying them directly instead of through the website we booked them through. It was much more convenient and many hosts will in fact have their own website, even if they are basic and only have a phone number, email and reservations systems, so we’ve found it much more convenient that way. So, in essence, when booking through Airbnb, for example, many Italian hosts will have their WhatsApp on their listing. Sometimes you have to search for it, or they’ll have multiple listings across different services.